He snickered. “Were you holding out on giving me the recipe until I gave you the job?”

“There might have been a small possibility that I was holding off until you gave me the job.”

He nodded, proud. “I would have done the same thing.”

***

Alyssa and I stayed out on the town for the remainder of the night, celebrating me getting my first official chef job. We ended up in a cheap diner with hamburgers and French fries stacked in front of us, taking on the battle of who could eat the most without getting sick.

I felt like for the first time, I was happy again.

But I should’ve known it wouldn’t have lasted long. Because after the highs always, always, came the lows.

“You eat here too, son?” was heard from behind me, and my jaw clenched. I turned to see my father smiling my way like the asshole he was. He had his arm around a girl, and when I locked eyes with her, I saw the fear resting in her stare. My mind flashed back to the night I first saw those eyes.

“Do you know how beautiful your eyes are?” I asked, changing the subject. I softly began kissing her neck, listening to her softly moan.

“They’re just green.”

She was wrong. They were a unique shade of celadon, holding a bit of gray and a touch of green to them. “A few years back, I was watching a documentary on Chinese and Korean pottery. Your eyes are the color of the glaze they used to make pottery.”

“Hey,” I swallowed hard, tearing my stare away from Sadie. “What’s up?”

“What’s up?” he echoed. “You say what’s up as if the last time you saw me you didn’t try to start a fight.”

Alyssa was holding her purse close to her, and I could see the panic in her stare. She was terrified, the same way Sadie looked. The same way most women appeared when they were near my dad. “Look, I don’t want any trouble,” I said, my voice low.

“Oh, so now I’m trouble?” he snickered, talking loud because he wanted everyone to notice our interaction. That was the kind of person he was, the showoff. He stepped in closer to me as I sat, hovering a few inches above me. “Don’t forget the person who took you and your mom in all those years ago, Logan,” he growled, somewhat as a threat.

He stared at me with hate in his eyes for a few seconds before he smirked big and patted me on the back. “I’m just fucking with you, buddy. Can we sit? Can we join you?” He didn’t wait for a reply before sliding into the booth beside Alyssa.

Alyssa tensed up, and appeared seconds away from crying. I took her hand in mine, lightly squeezed her fingers, and pulled her closer to me.

I wanted to ditch the place, and take Alyssa home. I hated how my father made women’s skin crawl out of fear.

“This is my girl Sadie,” he said, wrapping his hand tightly around her waist, pulling her into him.

I cringed, feeling my temper building, but tried not to let it get to me. I held my hand out to Sadie for a handshake. “Nice to meet you,” I offered. She didn’t extend her hand, and she broke her eye contact.

Ricky spoke for her. “Oh no, no, no. No touching.” His voice was drenched in the same threatening manner that it always was when he spoke to Ma. He thought it meant something that he was a big powerful dick, so he belittled women as a way of feeling strong.

It just made him look weak to me.

“Sadie doesn’t really like to be touched by other men, do you, Sadie?” Dad said.

She didn’t reply, because he wouldn’t let her. If I hadn’t spoken to her that one night, I would’ve assumed she was mute, seeing how she hadn’t spoken one word since I saw her in the diner.

“Do you need something, Ricky?” I asked him, growing more and more upset.

He tossed his hands up in defense. “Whoa there, stranger. I just wanted to say hi.” His cell phone went off, and he glanced at Sadie. “Gotta take this. Don’t move.” He stood up, and headed outside to take the call.

My stare shot to Sadie. “What the hell are you doing with him? Is that the boyfriend you were talking about?”

“I—I didn’t know…” her voice was shaky. “I saw you at the train station after I tried to leave him, and I wanted to tell you. But I knew it’d only make more trouble. I want to leave him, but every time I try, he sends people to find me. I can’t…”

“Does he hurt you?” I asked. Her stare fell to the ground.

I dug into my back pocket and I pulled out my wallet, scrambling to get money. “Here. Take this. Go get on the closest bus, and get away from him.”

Alyssa’s eyes studied mine, but she didn’t ask what was going on. Her hand landed on my leg for comfort the whole time.

“I can’t leave. I can’t,” Sadie said, her eyes tearing up.

“Why not?”

“I’m pregnant,” she whispered. “I’m pregnant and I have nowhere and no one to run to. He pulled me away from my family. He destroyed all of my relationships. And now he’s all that I have.”

“Sadie, listen to me. For your kid, the best thing you can ever do is get on a bus and never look back. You don’t want to have a child with that man. I’ve been that child. Trust me, it doesn’t turn out well.”

She looked down, shaking slightly. “Okay,” she whispered. Alyssa appeared confused, but scribbled her number onto a napkin. “If you need anything you can call me, or Logan. I put both of our numbers down.”

Sadie wiped the tears from her eyes. “Why are you being so nice? You both hardly even know me.”

“What? Of course I know you. You taught me Spanish,” I joked, trying to break up the tension. She gave me a small smile and collected the money. “Go out the back door in the kitchen. I can take you if you want.”

I stood up, took her hand, and started walking her to the back. We almost made it until I felt her being yanked away from me.

“What the hell does ‘don’t move’ mean to you, woman?” Dad hissed toward her. His arm wrapped around her waist, and he squeezed her so tight that I saw the pained expression hit her eyes. “Time to go.”

Sadie looked at me with pleading eyes, and I stepped forward. “I don’t think she wants to go.”

“Excuse me?” he asked. He ran his fingers in Sadie’s hair and pulled her even closer, tighter. “You don’t want to go with me?”